That and making sure your stance is the appropriate height for the table height for your height.
Measurable Improvement from Equipment Change
- Thread starter Biloxi Boy
- Start date
No!
I’d bet dollars to donuts no studies of ANY kind have ever been done in pool.
I’d bet dollars to donuts no studies of ANY kind have ever been done in pool.
Not even by the players too prolly.
Biloxi Boy
Man With A Golden Arm
I ran "billiard cue" on google scholar and was amazed at the number of pubs. I need to talk with Mrs. BB and find the best way to refine my search. Meanwhile, if you are of a mind: https://scholar.google.com/
Last edited:
With the old corkscrew tips they would physically wear down.
The new tips are physically stronger which makes detecting their erosion patterns more difficult.
If I practice the same trickshot for a year I know where the erosion pattern will be for that shot.
New tip vs Old tip maintenance can be the Nascar repair crew moment. It was a skid because the tip was deformed.
Improvements are easy to measure if you have base measurements. I maintain base measurements when testing new cues at the bar.
If the assessment of the cue favors off center too much that its not worth it. If the cue hits close enough to center often enough then its a winner.
The new tips are physically stronger which makes detecting their erosion patterns more difficult.
If I practice the same trickshot for a year I know where the erosion pattern will be for that shot.
New tip vs Old tip maintenance can be the Nascar repair crew moment. It was a skid because the tip was deformed.
Improvements are easy to measure if you have base measurements. I maintain base measurements when testing new cues at the bar.
If the assessment of the cue favors off center too much that its not worth it. If the cue hits close enough to center often enough then its a winner.
Umm.... I'd call a lot of Dr. Dave's documented activities "studies". Also I think John McChesney's "study" of the effect of the style of joint on the perception of "hit" qualifies.
If we restrict it to careful, controlled studies of the effect of equipment changes on performance, then you're probably right, but there have been cue-sports-related studies hidden away in specialist journals that hobbyists like us may have not seen.
(Dollars to donuts is no longer giving up odds. I recently paid $5-something for a small cupcake, and the donuts were not far behind.)
I should have added "performance of the players" to my post. I've never heard of anything like that. Take a group of players, measure their performance in some meaningful way. Train them. Measure performance again. Compare that to training another group of players another way, (such as on smaller pockets, or different cue stick, or different instruction method, etc), measure again. etc.
Last time I brought a dozen to work I was surprised how close we were to a 1:1 ratio.
Here are a bunch of papers about learning billiards. My first search was not as clean because there is someone named Billiard who is a prominent sleep researcher.
Google Scholar
Examples:
Dynamic modeling based on fuzzy neural network for a billiard robot
Promoting pre-class guidance and in-class reflection: A SQIRC-based mobile flipped learning approach to promoting students' billiards skills, strategies, motivation …
Design of the neural-fuzzy compensator for a billiard robot
I’d imagine the biggest step change is the beginner change from house cues to “something” that allows the player to shoot with the same equipment consistently - however the players making this change are probably too unreliable to even be a control group for a scientific study unless you go for a TON of data points.
I think learning to use chalk properly is a bigger factor than type of cue.
But depending on the exact personal (jointed) cue stick a player ends up with, it might hinder their progress. I've seen some pretty bad jointed cues.
Drilling into the chalk at about 100RPM is still the preferred method right?
Only for the Borer People. They are more to be pitied than despised.
I think a reasonable possible study would be use of a glove. Accuracy of stroke speed under varying conditions would be the main measurement.
Biloxi Boy
Man With A Golden Arm
And I owned two of them during my formative years of pool. It should have been a crime to sell them to anyone, much less a budding Efren Reyes. Sadly, my game has never recovered . . .
One difficulty is it takes a LOT of play to nail down a level, and so looking for modest changes is asking a lot.
I used to do 10-15 innings of equal offense around 5-6am most mornings. I had the intuitive feeling that with certain kinds of music I was more likely "in the zone," and played better. So I split the days--good music on half the days and music I didn't care for half the days. After more of this than I could stand, I concluded I couldn't tell a difference. That's not to say there is not a difference. But if there was a difference, it wasn't enough I could measure in just 20-40 hours of play.
IMO, be skeptical of "I play better when" claims.
Getting a new cue, though, is a different issue. My guess is with new equipment, we aim on more of our shots ;-).
What?
Are you switching between kitten heels and stilettos?
Lou Figueroa
I kid, I kid
I'm not very tall and most tables are set for the closer to 6 footer. Something on the order of flipflops to sneakers is major.
That would be different.
All I can tell you is that you would not play any other sport (golf, tennis, bowling, pickle ball) in flip flops -- it changes things. You need proper foot support -- it's not the height.
Lou Figueroa
Seriously; it is the height. If I can't get my hips to rail level, everything changes.